October 25/2020: Black Trans Women Deserve Amplification & Awareness

This week, our main focus will be amplification and awareness with meditation prompts for us to cope with what we learn. Trans Women of Colour must be appreciated and respected. In the first slide, Call Her Ganda is a documentary that you should watch about the killing of trans woman Jennifer (Ganda) Laude’s by US marine Joseph Scott Pemberton in Olongapo. Ganda’s killer must be held accountable and we all need to be made aware of where this starts for it to end. Transphobia is colonial and patriarchal, rooted in the need to control bodies of colour and employ a toxic machismo culture. Indigenous Filipinxs and cultures embraced those who embodied both fem and masc energies as the spiritual leaders and healers of the communities (manilao) before Christianity was forced onto them during the European civilizing mission. We’ve had enough of seeing transgender folx having their rights and freedoms violently taken away. In the next slides, iamjarijones and @leynabloom are two Afro-Filipinx trans women who are routinely on the frontlines of every liberation movement, among directing and starring in movies, getting Times Square billboards, and breaking through industries that have excluded 2SLGBTQIA folx and folx of colour. It is time to stand up for them too, the uneducated of this world can be hostile and it is proven through the continuous mistreatment of trans folx of colour. Silence is cowardice because like Jari Jones said, “which black trans woman saved your life today?”

update: since our original post, Jari Jones has been called out for her predatory behaviours. we hope that she has been held accountable and that peace, justice and healing is brought to the victims who have been affected. we do not intend to idolize or praise predators so please consider this when reading this article and do your own Research with respect to the victims.